UUULTRAC LIVE BLOG

This is a "live" blogging of my thoughts, reactions and feelings towards ADELTA's 2020 action visual novel UuultraC, a game I know next to nothing about but caught my attention some time ago after it received an English release. I have not played any other ADELTA games, though I have a copy of Hashihime of Old Book Town waiting for me to dust it off and play it. This is the Steam version of the game, if that makes any difference.

Mangagamer's store page describes the game's story as "a golden era of artists, actors, and heroes is shaken to its core when kaiju straight out of black & white cinema attack Japan! One couple falls victim to the attacks and must face the reality of the kaiju's infectious nature turning others into more kaiju and join the fight for acceptance. One couple must deal with the strain and stress of fighting the kaiju and defending the people as the superhero team, Icarus Rangers. And one couple must struggle with their complex relationships with both sides of the kaiju versus hero battles."

This game was a gift from MarineHaddock, because he loves this game and wants to spread the UuultraC agenda. This live blog is my gift back to him. Please enjoy my commentary!

Each page of this live blog contains only 20 entries to avoid having to load too many pictures at once. I will most likely skip on posting screenshots of explicit nature, or at least censor them heavily, mainly because getting CGs is part of the appeal of playing visual novles, and I wouldn't want to spoil that experience.

Warning: I did not read the tags for this game, so I can't give the visitor a warning of what's to come. I will assume genre-typical content will be present in this story, like violence and character death (including monsters, who deserve to live!!! shakes fist at tokusatsu shows). You can visit this entry about UuultraC in the Fanifesto community that includes a detailed description of any warnings needed.

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Monday Jan 1, 2024 I am starting this year with some gayming. This live blog is dedicated to my good friend Ham. Praying for many more BLVN licenses in this 2024 so that we may continue being gay and gaymers and visual novel idiots together.

Here is the opening movie for UuultraC.

Monday Jan 1, 2024 The opening starts playing as soon as you open the game, which wouldn't be an issue to me if the default display wasn't windowed, because it is tiny. The dramatic visuals lost their impact a little bit when displayed in such a small format.

A screenshot of my screen, with VS Code maximized in the background and UuultraC open on top of it, windowed. The game screen is about six times smaller than the screen size.
There's a clear loss of quality with the upscaling of the full screen, the visuals lose their crispiness, but after a while of playing my brain was able to ignore it.

The settings menu is quite sparse, what you see on the screenshot is what you get.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 The writing in this game strikes me as odd compared to other VN experiences I've had. There's moments where I feel like I'm missing a vital piece of info to fully grasp what's going on. At least some of this impression probably has to do with the translator, who has to do the job of rewriting a piece in the process of turning it into a different language, but it's probably the writer's own style. I vaguely remember thinking the same about Hashihime's story progression (what little of it I experienced, at least). Both games are written by Kurosawa Rinko and translated by Tania Torres-Delgado.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 Something that impressed me right off the bat is the dynamic use of visuals to convey action and emotion. I'm used to the kind of VN that relies more on text than visuals to say things, but there's a lot of very cinematic moments here that use effects, brief flashing CGIs, close-ups and the like, worded descriptions become secondary. Some of it reminds me of Gore Screaming Show, though it feels a lot flashier here, in a good way. I am streaming this first play session for a friend, who likes this over the heavier text use of Lkyt. and its opening sequence, which was "40 minutes of a wolf jpg" lol. Can't argue with that.

The downside I would say is that, timing-wise, sometimes the sound design doesn't feel quite on par with the visual side of things.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 Pretty quickly we find out that our protagonist is an average Peter Parker with a shit job and a mean boss. Hang in there, Shoutarou.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 UuultraC screenshot. A CGI of Kozuka squatting in the toilet, pants slung over his shoulders and holding his head in despair while Shoutaro and Sally peek in to check in on him. Kozuka says 'also, I can't poop.'
Finally, a BL character that I can relate to.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 Shoutarou keeps thinking about his failed audition and my friend is like girl get over it and I agree, BUT. But. If my idol told me I suck after I tried hard to impress them and even wrote a cringe comment about wanting to work alongside them because I admire them, I might end it all.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 A dialogue log screenshot. 'I was still nervous sitting in front of the switchboard. I wiped the sweat from my hands, put my headphones on, and answered a call. '*huff, huff* Hello?' Pervert on the Line: 'What color is your underwear?' Narration: 'The year is 1970, the height of Japan's great economic boom.''
It's hard to convey on a screenshot but the jump from the reveal that Shoutarou and Kozuka are a couple that (at least sometimes) openly display kinship in public, to Shoutarou's quiet arrival to his second job, to the pervert call that mere seconds prior I manifested by wondering if people working switchboards had to deal with in real life, to the energetic WELCOME TO 70'S JAPAN narration was funny as hell.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 UuultraC screenshot. A CGI showing Kozuka flaunting a Four Concealed Triplets Big Three Dragons winning mahjong hand, a boastful look on his face, his tongue peeking out. A police officer says 'four concealed triplets?!'
God I wish that were me.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 UuultraC screenshot. A CGI of a man wearing an orange suit, standing by the doorway. The man says 'I was just using your bathroom.'
Shocked at how much pooping representation there is in this game.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 Partial UuultraC screenshot of a dialogue box. A police officer says 'We discussed that thirty minutes ago. You were on the toilet that long?'
This man doesn't get it. Yes this man is suspicious as hell, look at him and his orange suit and his scheming eyes and his sussy voice acting, but also, I spend 60+ minutes sitting on the throne and risk getting hemorroids and WHAT ABOUT IT. Stop pooping discrimination today!!!
Monday Jan 1, 2024 This is the part where my friend informs me this game apparently doesn't have a CGI gallery, which is insane to me but also kind of sounds right because of the amount of illustrations I've seen so far and the way they're used. Still though, a visual novel released in current year not letting the player enjoy the fruits of their labor (looking at hot anime people and crying) is wild.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 Kozuka gives Shoutarou a thumbs up.
He is hot but a bit stupid.

Before I forget, me and my friend were kind of sighing and accepting the fate of industry standard younger uke protagonist but what do you know, turns out Kozuka is 19 and (checks VNDB) Shoutarou is 24. Still stuck navigating the story as an uke who is not that old but I'll take this as a win.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 Partial UuultraC screenshot of a dialogue log. Shoutarou: 'I love you.' Kozuka: 'Sh-Sh— Shou!!' Shoutarou: 'Why are you chasing me?!' I was even pedaling as fast as I could. Kozuka: 'Where is my goodbye? My goodbye you-know-what!!!' Shoutarou: 'Use all that energy to finish your manga!' He was pulling on the back of my bike. One false move and I'd go down tumbling.
Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 I got right away that Sakura and Kozuka were bullshitting about being siblings for reasons unknown, what I didn't see coming was that Kozuka was gonna hit me with a delusional ass excuse to kidnap a little girl. Shoutarou's been holing up with a guy he's doesn't know that well for a whole year huh.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 UuultraC screenshot. A CGI of a monochrome drawing of Kozuka drawn in the style of Go Nagai's Devilman. He is reaching down towards something on the other side of a rail. The dialogue box reads 'It was Kozuka, the budding manga artist, that reached out to me in the nick of time.'
Hehe epic reference. These shifts of art style for memories are a nice touch and say interesting things about self-perception. Shoutarou's avatar in his memory is not handsome or masculine, reflecting 50s/60s designs for younger characters like those by Osamu Tezuka (or perhaps Shotaro Ishinomori, whose name Shoutarou might or might not be referencing), with stylized stumpy legs and button noses, while Kozuka looks pretty much exactly like Akira Fudou from Devilman, an edgy, violent story with a cool, bold protagonist. Kozuka's design might be anachronistic in a way (it's the year 1970 in the story, while Devilman began publication in 1972), but that kind of tells me a lot of what Shoutarou sees in his boyfriend. He's a dazzling new hero.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 Partial UuultraC screenshot. A dialogue log that reads 'I was handed my final wages. Actually, it was just an empty envelope.'
UuultraC screenshot. A CGI of Shoutarou's supervisor waving him off while her attention is on a paper in her hand, saying 'You drank kaiju blood, right? You're probably infected.'
Partial UuultraC screenshot of a dialogue log. 'I never really thought about whether or not I liked my jobs. I didn't think it mattered. I always thought that if I didn't ask for much, didn't gossip behind people's backs, and never said anything to offend anyone, I could live my life without anyone ever hating me. I now knew that wasn't the case. Everyone was afraid of the kaiju.'
With the main character being a queer man in a sort of out sort of hidden relationship that still has problems expressing queerness in front of some people, this whole kaiju infection thing, the fear surrounding it and how easy it is to lose your job over even just a rumor of being infected, in the 70s... I'm not reading too much into it by seeing it as a metaphor for AIDS am I?
Monday Jan 1, 2024 UuultraC screenshot. A CGI of a blushing Shoutarou playing with his hair, glancing at Choutsugai. He thinks 'Whoa, my face is burning. I couldn't handle people who were this smooth.' UuultraC screenshot. A CG of Choutsugai winking back at Shoutarou. 'I turned away for a moment, then looked back at Choutsugai again. He really was charming.'
Calm down gay you have a stray waiting at home and this man is a walking red flag.
Monday Jan 1, 2024 Kobayashi's overly friendly interactions with Shoutarou along with his isolating of him when they were kids is giving "I kinda had a gay moment with this kid but then decided I didn't want others to know so I Invisible Storm-ed his ass".
Monday Jan 1, 2024 UuultraC screenshot. Hayata's girlfriend, an attractive woman, stands outside Shoutarou's apartment building, saying 'Hey, stop blubbering already.'
UuultraC screenshot. A CGI of Hayata and his girlfriend walking away from Shoutarou's home, bathed in the sunset's warm light. Hayata looks back at Shoutarou with a sad expression.
There is no way in hell this cringe-looking guy, this antennae-wearing crybaby, this unsteady bowlcut-hairdo little twink bitch has this hot of a girlfriend. What the hell. Her shapely ass. Why him and not me. What the hell.
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